Frederick Law Olmsted SUBJECT FILE [*Cemeteries 1864 - 91 & Undated*][*VIII Cemeteries B 1sts.*] Bear Valley, Oct. 16th 1864. F.L.O. to J. O. Dear Father: I am also engaged on plan for laying out a cemetery at Oakland, and have been consulted as to a park there. I should like very much to lay out a good cemetery- have never yet had a chance on what I thought an entirely suitable site. I have never seen a cemetery to the plan of which there were no great and obvious objections. The acacia should not be used for the hedge. It is subject to distruction by vermin. I should think Osage Orange would do if sufficiently closely clipped. If allowed to grow too rapidly it would probably be winter killed or much damaged in some severe season. The buckthorn would probably by the safest. The committee can best judge by observation of old hedges about Hartford. As to plan of fence other than hedge, advise them to see Report of Commissioners of Central Park for 1863 (Seventh Annual). As to general regulations and plan, they will get the best hints from a Report of the Cincinnati Cemetery. Let them send for all papers-Rules & Regulations & Reports.VIII B 1865 San Francisco, Feb. 11, 1865. F. L.O. to John Olmsted (father) I have an engineer at work putting my cemetery plan upon the ground at Oakland, and as soon as this is done shall employ him in making a topographical survey of the lands belonging to the University of California, with a view to laying them out in a park. VIII (Cemeteries) Oakland B 1st 1865 F.L.O. to C. V. San Francisco, March 12, 1865 My dear Vaux:- .............................................. I am getting on with my cemetery, which will be of a very elaborate and complicated pattern. Miller is employed in staking it out. I have also made a preliminary reconnoisance of a large piece of ground held by the college of California, which I propose to lay out upon the Llewellyn plan. It is an accursed country with no trees and no turf, and its a hard job to make sure of any beauty. I have given plans for improvement of a country seat and I will try to send you copies, so you can see how I do it.VIII. Dupl. A Page 130. Aug. 2nd, 1870 General M. C. Meigs; Q.M. General’s Office Washington, D.C. Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your favor of 23rd ulto. giving me the opportunity to advise in regard to the application of an appropriation of $20,000. for the planting and cultivation of trees and shrubs in the National Cemeteries. The advice called for, in sufficient detail to be of much value, would fill several large volumes. I do not think there is a man living who could say with confidence what varieties of plants would thrive in each of the localities named without having visited them. I can only offer you a few hints of a general character. First, as to general design. I would recommend that it should be studiously simple; that ambitious efforts of ignorant or half-bred landscape gardeners should be especially guarded against. The main object should be to establish permanent dignity and tranquility. Looking forward several generations, the greater part of all that is artificial at present in the cemeteries must be expected to have either wholly disappeared or to have become inconspicuous and unimportant in the general landscape. The mounds and all marks of individual graves will have been leveled. The ground will be clothed by a considerable indigenous growth as well as by the remains of the trees now to be planted and which will then be venerable. Assuming that one is harmonious with the other, these grounds having been simply protected against outrage and the introduction of things which would be offensive, would then appear more agreeably, appropriately and satisfactorily decorated than they would while in the hands of the most skillful gardener. This then is what I would recommend to be aimed at : - A sacred grove, sacredness and (protection?) being expressed in the enclosing wall and in the perfect tranquility of the trees within. It will be safer that the whole ground should be covered with trees and shrubs __ after a few years densely covered — because we cannot expect good turf to be maintained very long in any of them. In some it must be impossible to establish it even now. Unless protected by dense growth of foliage or turf the ground will soon appear and neglected, will wash and gully. By giving it up to a generally dense growth of foliage you adopt the easiest and by far the cheapest way of keeping it. To get plants much your best as well as yourGen. M. C.Meigs. -2- Aug. 22nd, 1870. most economical plan would be to collect young plants in each case, from the indigenous woods of the vicinity, chiefly seedlings of from six inches to four feet in height; plant these in a nursery on the ground. This operation would root-prune them, the more fertile and those least adapted to thrive in the soil of the cemetery would die or dwindle and be taken out. The remainder would probably, for the most part, be better adapted to your purpose in that locality than shrubs would be taken from nurseries. In most cases this nursery stock could be obtained by contract with farmers of the vicinity. I have made such contracts repeatedly at from two to five cents a plant, and had them executed satisfactorily by entirely unskilled men. The removal may be made in the fall or spring. The early autumn is best except for a few succulent species, but I think chiefly because in the early autumn the ground is apt to be in better condition, the trees are better planted (manipulated) and the soil is better consolidated about their roots before the next growing season. Practically, in this nursery work, plant at any time after the leaves begin to decay in the early autumn until the new leaves begin to expand in the spring, when the soil is not frosty or slimy with moisture. Second, a nursery having been established by or with the aid of a special force, the permanent gardeners and keepers of the ground could probably do all the work subsequently necessary. Every fall and spring they should be employed in thinning out the plants, filling up gaps by transplanting from parts too thick, and removing as many as they can of those which appear thrifty and well-rooted to their permanent places. During the summer they should as far as practicable the nursery and kept from choking the newly planted trees. Third, trees of very rapid growth (brittler wooded and short-lived) as the various sorts in different parts of the country called Cottonwood, the Abele or Silver Poplar — all the Poplars — the Alanthus, Pawlonias, Pride of India, etc, should be excluded. I should advise also against the European Linden and the Am. Silver Maple. Of Evergreens, Balsam Fir and American and Chinese Arbor Vitae are to be avoided. In trees it is age that costs. There is a large variety of trees which can be obtained by importation at two or three cents each, being then three years old and twice transplanted, which at five or six years of age are sold at a dollar each. With proper care the smaller tree will in ten years be the larger and finer one. TheGen. M. C. Meigs. -3- Aug. 22nd, 1870. young trees may be transported, transplanted and insured at a tenth the price which would be required for the tree of ordinary size taken from the nursery. If there is no ground within the cemeteries, or any of them, which could be taken for a nursery plat, nursery rows could be made between the tiers of graves. They would be harmless for the time being and would disappear after a few years. Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, Fred. Law Olmsted.VIII [*Had FLO any previous [*from Min relation to Nat Cem [?]*] Brillard*] R. N. BATCHELDER, Lieut. Col., Deputy Quartermaster General, U. S. A. Office of National Cemeteries, Washington, D. C., Febry 27 1885 Mr Fred Law Olmsted. New York City Dear Sir I inclose herewith a letter received from General Meigs which will show you that I have tried to deserve the recommendation which you were kind enough to give me for my present position. I have gradually built up the National Cemeteries to their present good Condition. Some of them are very fine places and would like to continue on with the work as long aspossible, and shall feel greatly obliged if you will request Mr. Curtis to befriend me with the [Amory] President-elect, I have been faithful and efficient in my work, and have given full satisfaction to the heads of the Department to which I am attached. General Meigs makes the mistake of thinking that it was Mr. Greeley instead of yourself who recommended me to him for the work at Vicksburg. Please return General Meigs' letter and believe me Yours very truly James Call Jr. C.E.ElesliptBrookline 9th August, 1886. George W. Vanderbilt Esq: My Dear Sir; When we came to study the place of the Mausoleum Ground with the advantage of the topographical map, we found that the slope of the hill was much steeper than, in parsing up through the trees, I had been led to suppose and the work required to realize the ideas I had formed for its treatment, more especially for the route of the approach road much heavier. We found also in later visits that the distances being misty I had at first been deceived as to the direction of the outlook toward the ocean. This led us to try to form different plans but at the end we returned in the main to the views originally expressed to you. We did not however feel inclined to elaborate our plan without being better satisfied on a few points nor without further conference with Mr Hunt For that purpose I have been to New York and to Staten Island during the last week, have discussed the matter with Mr Hunt and also with Mr Ostrander, the SuperintendentOf the Cemetery, as well as with Captain Vanderbilt and your brother Cornelius, whom I saw yesterday at Newport. I am very sorry that we cannot see you and that our present views can only be presented as imperfectly as they must be, even by a long letter. I will first submit three propositions upon which the design must be formed :- I the approach would be at no point so steep as to make a strong impression upon the mind of those passing over it - of being extraordinary in that respect. The line originally laid down and upon which a road has been begun would have a grade of one in seven which is far out of the question. The ex treme grade that we think admissible would be one in four- teen ( the grade of Fifth Avenue, 34th to 35th streets is one in twenty five - of the steepest - bye road in the Central Park, that by which “Vista Rock” is reached where the Statue of Bolivar stands, is one in seventeen). II A markedly zigzag course which would claim attention as a feat of engineering should not be taken to get up the hill. As far as possible in the end the road should seem to be following a course prepared by nature. III The Mausoleum is intended to resemble what are called hill-side tombs, these being caverns in the sides of hills with monumental entrances built up outside the natural entrances. This intention is not satisfactorily3 realized however, because the upper part of the masonry appears from all points to be above the highest part of the hill behind it. The effect would be much better if the ground behind were higher and on the flanks of the tomb more advanced, that is to say, if the masonry did not protrude from the hillside as much as it does. Mr Hunt entirely agrees with me in this opinion. I will explain what we advise to be done by reference to the enclosed sheet labeled “Preliminary Plan”. The present road of the Moravian Cemetery is to be followed to the point B, where a cutting has been made, as you will remember, with the intention of turning sharply to the left. Instead of this, the present proposition is to turn slightly to the left, strike into the hill, then with an easy curve turn to the right and approach the tomb with a single sweep, going as near the East boundary of the property as is practicable while leaving a screen of foliage to prevent an outside view in this direction. The branch road is for the use of the custodian. I proposed in conversation with you that the entire space of the terrace should be paved as a carriage court. The dullness and aridity of such an arrangement seems to be unnecessary. We now propose that the larger part should be a surface of flat turf flush with the carriage.4 survey shown. The carriage way is twenty feet wide. On the occasion of a funeral the procession would approach on the right of the tomb, the carriages stopping in succession at the steps before the entrance and then moving on without change of order until the rear of the procession was reached when they would turn and follow back, finally taking up their proper occupants at the steps and then move round the sweep and proceed down the hill out of the ground, keeping always to the right. This would be simple, orderly and in accordance with custom. If by any blunder or accident carriages were driven off on the turf it would occasion no disturbance or serious injury. The turf could be occupied by those on foot. This intended to be kept flat and smooth as a tennis court. The terrace is to appear of perfectly level surface bounded by a parapet three feet high of the same cut stone as the face of the tomb, to be designed in detail by Mr Hunt. This to be broken at intervals by piers and on those piers vases within which tubs of agaves or other suitable plants to be placed during the summer. The terrace to be sustained by a wall under the parapet. This wall to be built of field stone of the locality with considerable batter, to be much overgrown with creepers. Of the outline of the terrace shown in the drawing, should be retained this wall would in its southern face be six feet high. But Mr Hunt would5 much prefer, and it may be practicable by changing the proportions of the terrace ground plan, to carry it farther out from the tomb and give it a greater elevation on the South. In order to give the hill greater relative importance in looking toward the tomb, it is proposed to fill over it until a new surface is formed on all the space of about 150 feet back of the terrace, this new surface to be twenty five feet higher than the present surface and fifteen feet higher than the highest point of the roof. The proposition in this respect will be understood better by examining the Section on another sheet sent herewith. The embankment is spread to the right and left, its surface merging with the natural surface at points about a hundred feet from the hawthorns i.e. from the middle of the tomb. The objection to the entire proposition as thus presented, which has led us to be slow in advising its adoption is 1st, the necessity it involves of removing a large number of trees both in the immediate vicinity of the tomb and on the hill side before it and, 2nd, the heavy work of grading required. Neither of these objections can be overcome without (1) shutting the ocean out of view from the terrace, (2) making the approach road longer and more tortuous in course, (3) leaving the face of the tomb to appear as it does now6 unfortunately large relatively to the hillside against which it stands. The heavy work of grading referred to is that necessary to carry the road up the hill on the simple course laid down, with a rise of one foot in each fourteen of advance. To accomplish this the road must be in cutting nearly all the way, and at one point this cutting would be 30 feet deep The material to be moved will be little short of 40,000 yards which is three times as much as could be used in grading up the hill back of the tomb and in forming the terrace. The excess we propose to throw out on the South side of the cut. The result in time would be this:- The road on leaving the general cemetery would enter through a gateway what would appear to be a [deep] natural winding defile, the slopes of which would be of varying undulation and for the most part closely wooded so that there would be arches of foliage over the road forming a deep shade. This would continue till the turn had been made by which the face of the tomb would be brought into view in a framing of foliage, when the road would come quickly out into the open table [land] of the terrace. The trees to be removed would have to be replaced7 by planting smaller ones but in a few years these smaller trees would be much finer than the existing trees can ever be, most of the latter having grown too closely and acquired a spindling habit. The grading would probably supply all the stone needed for the retaining-wall of the terrace and for the bottoming of the roads The cost for grading would probably be from 25 to 35 cents per cubic yard, say $12000, the material being delivered where required. We have the addresses of three Staten Island contractors, recommended by Captain Vanderbilt and others, and, the specifications being very simple, we can, when desired, soon obtain bids from them. I expect to leave for Oregon and California about the 20th inst. To be absent 5 or 6 weeks. If desired the work could be put under contract before that - we have an assistant engaged to set out the work and superintend it on the ground and my son will inspect it as often as may be desirable. Yours Truly Fredk. Law Olmsted.Vanderbilt Tomb F.L.O. to G.W. Vanderbilt 9th Aug 1886 Giving plan of laying and approvalVIII Cemeteries Evidently Mr. O. referred a job to Mr Weiderman St Patrick Cathedral Cemetery See Letter W to O Sept 11/88 filed Weiderman[*VII dupl A*] 2nd. August, 1888. The Jno. D. Crimmins. My Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your esteemed favor of 31st ulto. and thank you for thinking of me for the proposed service to the Trustees of the Cathedral and much regret that I must decline to accept it. I have never been able to reconcile myself to the principles upon which our great burial grounds and those of Northern Europe are designed have never felt qualified to work under them and for more than twenty years have declined all engagements offered me to do so. I have declined two within a few months. The man in whom I should have the most confidence for the duty is Mr. J. Weidenman. He laid out the Cedar Grove Cemetery at Hartford, Conn., was afterwards connected with me in various private and public works; then went to Chicago to lay out a large Cemetery there, and lately wrote me that he was out of employment. Very Respectfully Yours, Fredk Law Olmsted.[*VIII*] [*Suggested Eliot - 27th*] [*from Miss Bullard*] Cable Address: "Triangle," NewBritain. Warehouses: New York. Philadelphia. Baltimore. London. Office of Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company, New Britain, Connecticut, Sept 26th 1888 U.S.A. Fredk. Law Olmstead Esq Brookline Mass. Dear Sir: - The town of New Britain is contemplating some improvements in the cemetery which, although not extensive nor involving any great outlay, can best be undertaken after the matter has been examined and considered by some one conversant with this kind of work. If therefore you expect to be in this vicinity soon, or can make it convenient to come here for a few hours, we would be pleased to have the benefit of your advice and assistance. Yours very truly T. S. Bishop Chairman of Com.VIII dupl A-also Typewr. Draft corrected by FLO Page 226 25 October, 1891. Wm. A. Moore, Esq., President of the Board of Trustees of Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Mich. Dear Sir: The following observations are written at your request. They are based upon a brief examination of Elmwood Cemetery, under the guidance of yourself and others of the Trustees, the Superintendent being unfortunately absent. They are intended to suggest certain general principles to be regarded in the future management of the place. It is possible that fuller and more accurate information would lead to a modification of some of the statements to be made for the purpose of illustration, and to courses somewhat different in detail from those advised, but it is believed that the principles commended, and the general objects advised to be henceforth had in view, are wholly sound. The ground desirable to be sold for graves in Elmwood Cemetery seems to be nearly all disposed of; even in most of the family lots, burials will, before many years, cease to be made. The trust of the Trustees will henceforth chiefly be the fulfilment of obligations that are implied in the term "rural" when given to burial grounds. If memorials of the dead have been placed within the Cemetery which are of perishable materials, or which stand on insecure foundations, we do not suppose that, as a rule the Trustees are under obligations to make good the natural results of neglect or miscalculation in these respects, but with regard to the maintenance of rurality in the place as a whole, the duty of the Trustees is, we believe, unquestionable. The term rurality, as applied to a burial place, we assume to mean at least this: that its scenery is to be predominatingly natural rather than artificial. Elmwood will soon be in the heart of a great town. On all sides of it there will be haste, bustle, impatience and disquiet, and people will be pressed for room to carry on their business affairs expeditiously. Experience shows that under these circumstances there is great danger that efforts will be made to encroach upon the cemetery property, under the plea that the dead should not stand in the way of the living. If streets shall not be run through it, or other projects carried out requiring graves to be actually opened, there is a liability that its turf will gradually "run out" and not be restored; its trees fall into decay, and their places be left unoccupied; Its roads and paths become grass-grown and gullied, and such a general character at length establishedW. A. Moore. -2- 25th October, 1891. for the place, that public opinion will welcome any project that promises to put it to another use than that of an undisturbed resting-place of the dead. This has been the history of many burial-places in older towns: places containing the graves, tombs and monuments of many worthies of those towns; places which were at one time apparently much more secure from such a fate than Elmwood can be made by any laws or police provisions, or by any funds established for the purpose, except as these funds shall be used in some way for the lasting wellbeing of the living. There are many such burial-grounds that are most unattractive. Even if enclosed by strong walls, they have the character of waste places. Some have dilapidated fences, and year after year are resorted to only by vagabonds and dogs. If, as its trees and fences decay, Elmwood is not to have a similar fate, it will be because of a regard that shall have been established for the place, not in the minds of those now interested in it, nor in the minds of their children, but in the minds of the people who have personally known nothing of its dead, and who will be no more interested in this particular collection of the dead than they are in many other such collections. It will be because, to many people of Detroit in the future, the place is found a grateful retreat from the town, and it will have become a grateful retreat from the town only because of such natural rural scenery as the Trustees have, long before, made provisions to secure. Regard for this soothing natural scenery will be the deeper, with future visitors, because of the pathos and solemnity of the purpose which will be known to have led to its preservation, and because of the contrast between the sentiment which will thus be nurtured and that which pertains to the purposes of rural grounds or parks originally intended to be used for the gay recreation of thoughtless multitudes. The conviction thus imperfectly explained is a key to the counsel that we have to offer you. Elmwood was probably chosen as a site for a cemetery because of the beauty of its natural scenery, and because of the feeling that it is decorous to deposit the remains of our beloved under the shadows, and within the seclusion, of umbrageous trees and screening thickets; that is to say, in places that we call peaceful, and that invite to rest and contemplation. The more nearly Elmwood can now be restored to its original character in these respects, without causing the use which has been made of it to be lost sight of, the more surely will the original sentiment associated with it be preserved and perpetuated, and the more surely will it be allowed to remain a place of unbroken repose.W.A. Moore. -3- 25th October, 1891 If the Trustees should adopt this opinion, what course of operations ought they to pursue, and what should be their policy from this time forth? The answer we should give to this question grows from the following course of reflection: In traveling through Michigan we have seen a good deal of land, the surface of which consists of a series of swells, each swell divided on all sides from other swells by shallow depressions; the swells and depressions merging one into the other by slopes, everywhere gentle and graceful, nowhere steep, abrupt, or in the prosaic form of inclined planes. Where areas of the sort to which we thus refer are wooded, the trees generally stand less densely than those in the woods of the more eastern states, and there are often small thickets of underwood among them; rarely a bush standing out singly and to be seen as a detached object. Occasionally a grapevine, Virginia Creeper or Clematis is seen growing up into the trees, combining with the bushes in a thicket, or spreading on the ground. In the less shady places, the ground is covered with turf; but, more generally, coarse grass grows upon it, thinly, and mixed with a variety of low perennial or annual plants. Most of the upland on the site of Elmwood appears to have been originally of the landscape character thus described. If we were asked how such a site could best be made a fitting place of burial, having regard to the ordinary burial usages of American communities, we should recommend access for funeral processions to be provided to its different parts by roads; making no greater length of roads, and occupying no more space with them, than would be indispensable to reasonable convenience in the movement of funeral processions. We question if walks through the divisions of the ground made by the roads would be indispensably necessary to reasonable convenience. We are convinced they would not be after interments had come to be infrequent. In laying out the roads, we should seek, as far as convenience will permit, to follow the lines of the depressions, but if, in order to avoid the removal of any particularly fine trees of groups of bushes, or to prevent the spaces between the roads from being over-large, it became necessary to cross the swells, we should aim to make, on the course desirable for the road, an artificial depression which would resemble a natural depression. Thus we should have no road which would not appear to be following a course suggested by the natural surface; no road unnecessarily prominent in a general view over the road, and no road border that would be otherwise than gently sloping to orW.A.Moore. - 4 - 25th October, 1891. from the surface of the road in such a manner that the road, when made, would seem to have required no notable disturbance of the original surface. We should seek to remove enough of the trees growing between the roads as thus laid out, to make room for the burial areas, but in the case of a few particularly promising trees we should, in order to spare them, sacrifice some space that would otherwise be appropriated to graves: We would not trim up a large, fine tree in such a manner that it would have a long, bare trunk, We should think it better to altogether remove any tree that might not be left with an entirely natural, agreeable aspect contributive to the general rural character of the place. We should seek also to retain the natural low thickets, as far as would be practicable, without sacrificing to the purpose an excessive amount of space for graves. We should, for instance, nearly always retain such thickets where they occur near the borders of the roads, and especially where two roads would come together. We should seek to prevent, by a partial screening, such a display of a multitude of monuments in all directions from the observer as would cause the destruction of that sylvan rurality which had, in the first place, suggested the suitability of the place for the repose of the dead and the rites of mourning. The term rural cemetery does not mean a place the permanent interest of which lies in exhibitions of monuments. When monuments occupy the eye more than all else in a burial ground, it has ceased to be of a rural character. Having thus indicated the leading motives of what we think would have been a desirable treatment, we need not state that much has been done on the ground, since it was taken for a cemetery, with the very different motive, in a large degree, of exhibiting the results of men's contrivance, skill and ambition in overruling, rather than in following and preserving nature. The surface of the ground on the margins of the roads, instead of being so modelled that the roads may seem to have been laid out with adaptation to the natural depressions and slopes, and consistently with the undulating character of the surface, has been intentionally thrown into obtrusively artificial banks, the surfaces of these banks often being planes so steeply inclined that it has been impossible to satisfactorily maintain turf upon them. In many places, in spite of all care to avoid it, they have a ragged and patched face, as, without great expense in repair, such banks in our American climate nearly always have. Instead of blending the surface of these banks with the more nearly level sur-W.A>Moore. -5- 25th October, 1891. face above and below them, by gracefully gentle curves of natural character, the purpose has been to make it as abrupt and as nearly angular as the quality of the material to be dealt with allows. The trunks of the best of the trees on the ground have been cleared of branches 20 to 50 feet above the roots, giving them not a rural, but a plainly artificial character, like the trees of an orchard. In thick woods, nature gradually removes, by decay, the lower limbs of trees, but the trees to which we refer have been standing on the edges of roads, and of broad spaces occupied by graves, in which situations they would, without artificial pruning, have taken spreading, stately and umbrageous, brooding and protecting forms, very different from those they now have. Trees and shrubs not native to the region have been planted in considerable numbers, not for the purpose of augmenting the natural beauty of the locality; not as elements of landscape composition, but as objects of interest individually. The present appearance of most of the introduced trees indicates that they are not suited with the soil and climate, and that they are likely to be short-lived. Many have already a forlorn aspect. These should long since have been felled, to make room for other more suitable trees and bushes. At various points, also, young trees which, if favorably treated, would, in fifty years, have an aspect of grandeur and stateliness, are growing into misshapen, uncouth and crippled forms, because crowded by others which are themselves hopelessly poor and undesirable to be retained. Of late, the aim of your management has been, we judge, to have the surface of the cemetery kept, as far as practicable, in closely shaven turf; trees and shrubs appearing upon it as decorative objects. We doubt if it is practicable, or desirable, to sustain this policy much longer. It is very expensive keeping turf in good order where it is found in so many patches of varying outline, with numerous irregularities of surface, and where much care must be used in working the mowing implements about monuments, trees and shrubs. It has probably been intended to produce as much as possible of the beauty of what is termed the "lawn system" of cemetery management, but Elmwood was not originally laid out with a view to the adoption of this system; the graves are not arranged suitable to it; the monuments and gravestones do not harmonize with it. We were asked by some of the Trustees whether it would not be better to remodel certain parts of the surface of the ground, in order to simplify the mowing W. A. Moore. -6- 25th October, 1891. process and to avoid much higgling work necessary to the pursuit of the present policy of keeping. We shall advise such remodeling, especially near the borders of the roads, for another reason; but as to the purpose of keeping as much of the ground as practicable in shaven turf, we recommend that it be abandoned, and that the policy be now adopted of a gradual reduction of the turf area, substituting for turf, in many places, thickets of bushes; mainly, but not entirely, low bushes of sorts natural to the region, and mats of woody creepers and ground plants. Once established, the expense of keeping these will be much less than that of keeping turf. There should be hardly any pruning, and the very little that may be required to check the excessive straggling of an occasional redundant shoot may be done in Winter by any unskilled laborer that can be trusted to limit the use of his knife to that single purpose. All trees that are failing, or not promising of continued growth, should soon be removed, and where crowding is not to be apprehended, others planted with reference to future general sylvan effect. In the choice of species for planting, those trees should be preferred which have been shown by experience to be likely to be most healthy and long-lived in the locality. These will be natives of the region, or foreign plants which have had long trial in it and been found to be perfectly at home. Not much care need be given to landscape composition. The native woods of Southern Michigan contain innumerable combinations of trees, nearly all of which are harmonious and agreeable. The removal of all trees which are destroying others of greater value, and of all trees that are growing decrepit, like many now on the ground, and an introduction of young trees that will gradually supply the places of those removed, should henceforth be a constant process in all the history of the Cemetery. If the Superintendent is qualified for his responsibility, it will be one of the most important duties of the Trustees to sustain and encourage him in such a course, under the attacks which the ignorance and superstition of the general public will, from time to time, bring upon him. The Superintendent should in every way be assured of his freedom to use the axe, and should always have a few well-grown nursery trees of different native sorts ready for planting when he sees occasion, having constantly in view the reproduction and perpetuation, as far as possible, of sylvan scenery of a character generally similar to that originally found in the locality. With regard to the roadside banks and similar artificial features, we advise the Trustees to enter at once upon a course of operations, of which the result willW. A. Moore. -7- 25th October, 1891. eventually be as nearly as possible the same with that which would have been obtained, had the policy which we have been suggesting been adopted at the outset and constantly pursued to this time. This course would involve the gradual obliteration of these banks and all other unnatural forms of ground surface, and would allow gracefully sweeping slopes, playing by reverse curves into one another, to take the place of them wherever practicable. There are a few cases, and but a few, in which there are trees growing in the upper parts of these roadside banks that are of a highly promising character, and which, therefore, should not be removed in order to give natural slopes to the banks. In these cases, if the road cannot be so raised or narrowed that the ground may be thrown into a slope with a convex curve in its upper part and a concave curve in its lower part, it would be better to bed stones so that the tree would appear to have grown from a seed dropped above them, and the bank to be supported and made abrupt by them, the stones showing only so much as would be necessary to this effect. In a number of places there are stone steps set into the roadside banks. If the banks were graded as we advise, these would have no use, and no pretence of use, and as they greatly mar the beauty of the ground, the Trustees - if they have a legal right to do so - should remove them. If they are not authorized to remove them, they should seek, first, to have as many removed from the cemetery as they can with the owners' consent; second, to have as many as they can of those that will be left taken up and replaced at a greater distance from the roads, and to have them more deeply set in their new places than they are now, so that they will be less protruding and conspicuous. The above suggestions sufficiently indicate the changed aim of management which we would advise the Trustees to have in view. The new policy would involve no abrupt variation from present methods, and no disputes with lot-owners. We assume that the Trustees hold a considerable sum for the maintenance and improvement of so much of the Cemetery property as is under their control. What we would advise is that some of the means thus available should be used to keep at work a larger force of laborers than would otherwise be employed, and that with this additional force, the Superintendent be required to make what progress he finds practicable every year in the direction we have been pointing out. First, perhaps, inW. A. Moore. -8- 25th October, 1891. removing the absolutely bad trees that are destroying the value of others not yet absolutely bad. Second, in grading down to an agreeably natural character the roadside banks and restoring as much as possible the agreeable, undulating character of the original surface of the ground. Third, in obliterating the useless walks. Not one of these walks, in our opinion, has a degree of use justifying its destructive effect on the rural aspect of the place and the addition which its expense makes to the cost of a suitable keeping of it. Fourth, in the introduction of thickets of native bushes that will soon take care of themselves. Fifth, in the removal, as fast as private owners can be persuaded to consent, of all artificial objects not absolutely essential to the main purpose of the Cemetery, more especially useless stone steps and copings and iron fences. We further advise the Trustees to suggest to lot-owners the great gain to the beauty and permanent fitness of the place for a resting-place for the dead, which will come from substituting single monuments of simple forms best adapted to be permanent, and bearing successive inscriptions for the dead of the family, in place of tablets or other more destructible forms of monuments for individual graves, and also the desirability in all private planting, of substituting plants likely to be of lasting value, and which will be harmonious with the general natural character of the place, rather than many such as have been planted by lot-owners in the past. With reference to the increase of hardy shrubbery, creepers and perennials, and to the occupation with them of much ground now attempted to be kept in fine turf, the most economical method of proceeding would probably be to engage some man who makes a business of collecting plants to gather large quantities of young and small plants of various sorts that grow naturally in fields and woods not far from Detroit, and to have these planted in a nursery established for the purpose, where they may be cheaply cultivated by the Superintendent. Then, from time to time, as opportunity offers, let good thriving plants be taken from this nursery and set in the Cemetery; some every Spring and Fall. The cost of plants so collected is small ,— generally it would be from two to five cents each; the cost of cultivating them, being mostly done by horse-hose or cultivators, would also be small, and if the work of transplanting them should be pursued systematically with the regular force of the Cemetery, the whole cost of the proceeding would not be formidable. In our judgment, after the general line of policyW. A. Moore. -9- 25th October, 1891. which we have suggested had been pursued a few years, the lot-owners would find the results increasingly pleasing and would become gradually inclined to proceed further in restoring a simpler and less fugitive and meretricious character of scenery than the Cemetery has at present. The further the Trustees shall be thus enabled to proceed in this direction, the greater will be the security acquired against the gradual lapse of the ground, after burials shall cease to be made in it, into the sad condition in which most of the older burial-places of the world are found. There is no reason why Elmwood should not thus come gradually to be a place of permanent value to the people of Detroit as a retreat from the streets and buildings and bustle of the town. It is necessary to this end that people should be able to pursue within it more or less sequestered walks, to sit under the shade of ancient trees and to find such a degree of seclusion as would be provided by considerable patches of underwood, and by a covering of the ground that will not be as notably artificial as that which it is the present aim of the management to maintain. A strong fence will soon be necessary to replace the present temporary fence of wood. A wall of masonry will, in the long run, be much the best. If the cost of this wall should be found to place it out of the question, the next best fence would probably be one of iron, perfectly plain and strong, to be covered and hidden by sturdy and long-lived creepers trained over it and so trimmed as to form, in effect, a loose, hedge-like wall of foliage. With regard to the best mode of treating the glen through which a water-course flows, no definite advice is practicable to be given, without a study of the results of a topographical survey. The present arrangement is most unnatural and is not agreeably artificial, but we doubt whether the suggestion of forming a considerable pond or natural creek could be carried out except at greater expense than would be justified by the result. Any project of importance for this purpose ought at least to have close study and nothing should be done upon it in a fragmentary, piecemeal way. Yours respectfully, F. L. Olmsted & Co. Landscape Architects.Trans Dear Mr. Robinson; I send you herewith a photographic view in Spring Grove Cemetery wh. I think will answer your purpose, [though one of the other views] Mr Stronch sends me with it a series of smaller views chiefly of monuments but among them there are two or three over the same lake, one of which you may [find] perhaps find better adapted to your prog. He also sends an account of Spring Grove Cemetery printed by the Association. I have marked in the Table of Contents the parts which I think likely to be most useful to you and a few passages in each of these parts. Near the close there is a brief account of the more important rural cemeteries of the United States. [The original plan if the] The course first adopted [for] in forming our cemeteries, as at Mount Auburn and Greenwood and all recently universally followed was to take a body of wooded land, open roads through it, divide the spaces between the woods in "lots", sell the lots and leave their owners to decorate them according to their fancy. It has been customary for the owners to mark their boundaries with walls, posts & chains, hedges or otherwise, and to planttrees, shrubs, vines and flowers within them. Each owner according to his taste & knowledge or [the] want thereof. them. Graves are made and monuments set up according to the taste and [form] means of each lot owner, and much as in an English churchyard, except that a stronger [that there has been more] inclination [here] has here been manifest to extravagant outlay in this respect. [The planting being often ill judged] [I have, (though I believe you have [assumed] been led to think otherwise), a strong sympathy with your antipathy to the breaking up a ground of natural character, or making any pretentions in that way, with objects of architecture or sculpture, and the result method of forming a cemetery also described [was] has been extreme.] The result for a time, and particularly when compared with [the] our older burial grounds [old church yards], was very pleasing., [and] But I must say that it was never [never] altogether satisfactory [pleasing] and the older and more crowded the ground, the more time operates upon the hedges and flower beds and posts and chains and thujas and spruces the further it is from being so [satisfactory]. I am giving you my strictly private opinion and for the purpose of a caution, which may be quite unnecessary, against the wholesale praise of the AmericanCemetery- and the more confidently because you seem to dislike the sticking of objects of architecture or sculpture upon a ground of a national character or ground making pretensions the [?] and to the breaking of its surface even with objects of gardening art. You dislike it, I detest it, and nothing has given me more pleasure in a long time than the article from the Saturday Review which you quoted lately which indicated that fashion was beginning to sit against bedding art, which, as far as I can judge is ruin to the art of composing landscape effects. (At the same time when you come here I expect to convince you that the arches in the Central Park were desirable and at any rate that not one of them was introduced as you were led to suppose for purpose of decoration.) But as to the Cemeteries, you will see, how impossible under the conditions I have described, any breadth[ly distasteful to me. You will see how impossible any breadth,] a repose or simplicity of landscape character must be; how inevitable the opposite qualities in a high degree. And yet if Art should do anything in a place of rest for our dead, it should be to produce an impression of restfulness. How is it to be accomplished as a general rule near quiet towns where land has a high value, while we hold to our present habits, is more than I can yet tell. I do not think I could lay out a burial place without making conditions about the monuments such as I fear few but Quakers would be willing to accept. But when I first saw Spring Grove Cemetery I found the problem more nearly solved by the taste and tact of Mr Stronch than I had ever expected to see it. Parts of Spring Grove must be a very beautiful pleasure ground, with moderately broad, simple and quiet effects, if the monuments were not to be seen, and the custom of having but one monument to a family, and of reserving near the drives and especially at the forks of the drives good spaces of ground to be planted and treated by the Association, at least seems a very grateful limit to the degree in which these effects shall be injured by monuments. The offensive parts which in our older cemeteries mark the boundaries of lots, even before they are sold, were by Mr Stronch set so that their tops were out of sight below the surface of the ground, though so near it as to be easily found when necessary. Nearly the whole of the implanted space of the Cemetery, even under the graves is a smooth surface of tint [?] The principles of the Spring Grove plan - sometimes carried out more thoroughly sometimes less so than there - have been generally [?] in those of our cemeteries established of late years.I do not want what you saw of our cemeteries and you will pardon [of] me for [visiting?] as if on the theory that [crossed out text] I imagined you had seen nothing of this. In the sub- structure information of my package you are solely indebted to Mr. Strunch We are at [heart?] just beginning in spring planting and in [already] the colder exposures [of the parks] the [frost] frost is not in out of the ground. In proper time I shall [?] take care to visit your request for a view in the Central Park.To Mr. Robinson [?] VII CemeteriesSpecification for work upon ground in connection with the Vanderbilt Tomb. Staten Island. The work to be done is to regrade the ground, construct roads and walls and other operations incidental to these in accordance with native specifications and with plans and sections [The grades to be reached will be indicated by stakes another contractor will take all reasonable care to avoid the untimely removal of the stakes]to be furnished; all under the general direction of F.L. & J.C. Lurdert Landscape Architects another superior in Amer of J.J.R. Cones, Civil Engineer and his assistants. [? required will be indicated by indication by [?] stakes another contractor is to avoid the untimely removal of such stakes.] Clearing and grubbing. Trees, stumps and roots, and stones more than four inches long, are to be taken out of the top soil to be moved. All stumps, roots, bushes and trees marked to be cut, are to be removed from the property and no wood or other unsuitable rubbish is to be used for filling-moved. All [tree] stumps, roots [or] and trees marked to be cut, and other rubbish is to be taken off the property [moved]. Protection of trees. [Trees.] Care is to be taken that trees standing outside of the ground to be operated upon are not injured. Guys and ropes are to not to be fastened to them: carts are not to be driven against them. If necessary they must be guarded by finder posts. No parts of them are to be broken or bruised and none to be cut without written permission of the Superintendent. [Topsoil. Top soil is to be removed and either stored in [?] banks and afterwards carried as required, or to be carried]mond. Trees: No tree not required to be removed is to be injured in the course of the work help save Except where the surface of the finished ground as planned is to be less than six inches Cu-[?] ern[?] the existing surface or less trim an foot above it, all the topsoil is to be removed. Where filling is required less than one foot in depth it may be fillingof topsoil. The topsoil to be taken up is finally to be deposited on the regraded subsoil. Where practicable this is to be done at one handling and always so when directed by the Super- intendent. Where this is not prac- ticable, top soil is to be then partially deposited in spur[?] banks and afterwards re- deposited as shall be di- rected. Care is to be taken to prevent the mixing of topsoil by subsoil and to prevent subsoil from being mixed with topsoil. Eroding. After the topsoil has been removed the subsoil is to be excavated with graders required and the excavated material deposited in layers not one thin but thick and evened to the sub-surface grades required. These required grades must be indicated by stakes and the customer is to care- fully avoid the untimely removal of the stakes.Rock excavation: Rock requiring to be excavated by blasting, is to be paid for by the cubic yard & is to include boulders, containing over 2 cubic yards. The contractor is to preserve the trees and all structures from injury by blasting. Rates of Payment The work is to be paid for at the rates following: - a. For clearing, grubbing and the removal of timber, brush wood roots and rubbish from the ground, per acre - [b. For top soil required to be moved twice (to and from spill banks) per cubic yard - c. For material excavated and required to be handled to places not exceeding two hundred feet in direct from places of excavation - pr. c. yd of excavation.b. For the movement of top soil, per cubic yard of excavation. c. for subsoil excavated and required when moved to places not exceeding two hundred but in direct - hire from places of excavation; per c. yard of excavation. d. For subsoil excavated including boulder not more than [d. For material excavated and u-] a cubic yard in size required to be hauled more than two hundred feet from place of excavation (except as next when provided for) per cubic yd of excavation For material excavated and required to be hauled to the mount to be formed in the [?] and on the [fennels] of the tomb within a distance of one hundred and eighty five of the miles thereof. per cubic yard f. For solid rock and for brost[?] -dus more than cubic yard in size, per cubic yard- g. For the retaining wall per running foot- h. For sodding, per sq. foot of sodding. i. For agriculture the laid pri lin. foot j For gutter laid per sq yard= complete including digging and grating k For the larger catch basins each l For the smaller do- each. by subsoil and where the sub- soil from being mixed with topsoil. Stone So much of all rock and boulders excavated is to be used in retaining walls, in roads, in staying steep banks and for filling as in the judgement of the Superintendent can be so used to advantage - Any surplus may be taken by my con- tractor and removed from the property, or may be used as filling but then shall as filling, provided that there shall be no stone near than a foot across within a foot of the subgrade surface. Turfing: If the Superintendent shall think it necessary to pre- vent excessive [mush?] in the steeper slopes, the contractor may be required to lay strips of sod one foot wide on lines crossing the lines of slope. Such sod is to be of ground pas- sive turf cut two inches thick and to be fastened withas filling, provided there no stone no more than a foot across shall Wooden pins driven to a depth of a foot at an aver- age distance of three feet apart. The sod is to be freshly moved and unless a soaking rain falls within twenty four hours after it is [so laid]laid is to be copiously watered. Finished surface. The surface of the topsoil is to be left in the condition of an evenly and firmly tilled farm field, [? and] free from lumps, heaps, or hollows and in all respects suitable for the raking in of grass seed [o?er????] by running water before the completion of the entrance is to be repaired by the contractor, without extra charge.[more than six inches and less than two feet in diameter shall be well] The contractor is not to receive any compensation for pumping or removing water or quicksand from ditches or excavations - nor for the expense of burying any boulders not used in filling.Limitation of Time. The work is to begin within ninety days of his signing of the contract and is to be completed and left in a finished condition before the twenty fifth day of August, 1887. A sum calculated at the rate of thirty dollars a day for each day [after the] except Sundays, after the date last above mentioned is to be deducted from any payments which may be due to the contractor not as penalty, but as liquidated damages. [for delay]Limitation of Time. The entire work is to be completed Extras: The contractor shall not be entitled to demand or receive payment for any work as extra work upon in or about the work herein described which is not especially ordered as an extra in writing by the superintending engineer and a price therefore agreed upon before such extra work has been begun.Disputes. With a view to preventing disputes it is distinctly understood that [the engineer is to be the] payments are to be made during the progress of the work solely according to the estimates of the engineer, That the engineer shall decide all questions as to quality and quantity of work or materials and that the Landscape Architects shall decide all questions as to the intent and meaning of the specifications or plans - Payments. Payment for work done shall not be made oftener than once a month, and a reserve of 20% from the amounts due shall be withheld [made left unpaid] until the final estimate. Estimates of quantities made during the progress of the work are to be approximate only, at the discretion of the engineer, but the final estimate is to be based upon the actual results obtained. Payments are to be made only upon the certificates of the engineer. Payment of the final estimate and reserves is not to be paid if there are [outstanding] claims for labor or materials [unpai] used in this work outstanding and unpaid, and it is expressly agreed that the contractorTractor will defend and indemnify the owners from all suits at law brought against them for labor or materials furnished for the work herein described or for any damages to persons or property suffered through the acts or negligence of the contractor or any one employed by or for him. The contractor shall at all times keep open a serviceable carriage way to the tomb. The contractor shall not sell or remove from the property any top soil or other materials except such as are herein specified.1889? Specifications for work on Vanderbilt Tomb Staten IslandRoad making: [The subgrade for the road is to be one foot below the finished surface.] The The subgrade surface of the road is to be prepared [for the road] with a crown of three inches and [is] to be [rolled so smoothed and] rolled and made firmly smooth so as to shed water to the sides. Upon the surface thus prepared is to be placed a foundation layer of stone six inches deep. [No stone in this layer is to] The surface of this layer is to be made even by [breaking, removing, projecting] knocking off all projecting points of stone and filling the interstices with smaller stones & thoroughly rolled until the whole shall form a firm compact and [smaller stones. No space is to be left large that] consistent body. [The hand can be enough to thrust the hand down to the earth through it] the upper surface of. No stone in this layer is to have a [present should] [flat upper surface of over one half square foot.] Upon [this] the foundation so found is to be spread a layer of broken stones and pebbles 4 inches deep. No stone in this layer is to be larger than will pass through a 2 1/2 inch ring. This layer is to be thoroughly rolled & upon it [upon this layer] is to be placed a layer of screenings of crushed stones two inches deep of the same quality as that now used for surfacing the roads in the adjoining cemetery No earth, except so much as may be permitted by the superintedant for dusting the surface of the foundation before rolling, no roots or [engineer for binding, no roots or other wood, and no] rubbish are to be allowed in [the construction] of the road. Gutter: Paved gutters are to be laid on each side of the road and elsewhere as may be [where] directed. They are to [shall] be made of smooth, water-worn cobbles, not over [4] [5] 4 inches in quarter diameter, set om edge and touching each other, bedded in coarse sand six inches deep, [such forms as may be directed] and well rammed. The gutters are to be such breadths and form as may be directed.Surface drainage Gutters will discharge at intervals into silt basins and silt basins into [underground] conduits, at least two and a half feet below the surface. These conduits are to be of the best quality akron sewer pipe laid to true lines and grades and [earth is to be removed from under each but] with all precautions to guard against displacements. Joints to be laid in cement mortar, compound of one part Portland cement to three of clean sharp sand. All branches to be made with Yo. Excess of cement to be carefully wiped out of the inside of the pipes immediately after each joint is laid -with all due precautions to secure stability and avoid Silt basins, are to be of two sizes; the smaller to be made of three two foot lengths of best quality Akron sewer pipe, 18 inches in diameter, set on end, all one direction and with T branches for the exit pipes, to be set on a stone or concrete foundation and made water tight with cement. The larger silt basins are to be of brick laid in cement mortar or concrete foundationswith walls four inches thick plastered inside and out with cement mortar. They are to be circular in plan and are to have an internal diameter of three feet, to be drawn in at the top two feet and are to be six feet deep below the grating. The concrete is to be made with one part Portland cement to three of clean sand and four of small clean stones. Silt basins of both classes are to be provided with cast iron gratings of approved patterns. Sand drainage. Sand drainage till two inches in calibre are to be laid in the trench with the sewer pipe, discharging into the silt basins. The ends of the till must be accurately filled together and the joints covered with strips of water proof. building paper to keep the earth out of them when the trench is filled. Back filling is to be rammed or puddled.are to be built of brick [laid in cement mortar] on concrete founda- tions with walls four [eight] inches thick. They are to have an internal diameter of three feet drawn in at the top to [fit a] two feet, and are to be six feet deep below the grating. The concrete is to be made with one part of Portland cement to three of clean sharp sand and four of small clean stones. The catch basins of both classes are to be provided with cast iron gratings of pattern to be approved [and are to be plastered inside and out with concrete mortar.] Retaining walls: These are to be firmly built of [selected boulders] field stone laid dry with a batter of one foot to each five feet vertical and are to have dry stone foundations three feet deep. The front of the wall [face] is to be built of selected [boulders and laid so] stone laid so as to form as far as practicable, an even face, [with] no spaces or chinking stones are to show on the face of the wall. No stones in the face of the wall are to be less than one foot in the smallest dimension. The wall is not to be less than three and one half feet thick at the bottom, [and] two and one half feet thick at the tops.List of National Cemeteries Cypress Hill, Brooklyn N.Y. Arlington, near Washington, Va. Alexandria, Va. U.S. Mil'y. Asylum. District of Columbia Battle Ground Annapolis, Md. Loudon Park, Md. Laurel, Md. Grafton, W. Va. Ball's Bluff, Va. Mound City, Ill's. Camp Butler, Ills. Crown Hill, Indianapolis, Ind. City Point, Va. Culpepper Court House, Va. Cold Harbor, Va. Danville, Va. Fredericksburg, Va. Fort Harrison, Va. Glendale, Va. Hampton, Va. Poplar Grove, Petersburg, Va. Richmond, Va. Staunton, Va. Seven Pines, Va.Winchester, Va. Yorktown, Va. Gettysburg, Pa. Antietam, Md. Andersonville, Ga. Marietta, Ga. Beaufort, S.C. Florence, S.C. Mobile, Ala. Newbern, N.C. Wilmington, N.C. Raleigh, N.C. Salisbury, N.C. Barrancas, Fla. Chalmette, New Orleans, La. Port Hudson, La. Baton Rouge, La. Alexandria, La. Fort St. Philip, La. Little Rock, Ark. Fayetteville, Ark. Fort Smith, Ark. Vicksburg, Mip. Natchez, Mip. Cave Hill, Louisville, Ky. Camp Nelson, Ky. Lebanon, Ky. Lexington, Ky. Logan's Cross Roads, Ky. Fort Donaldson, Dover, Tenn. Chattanooga, Tenn. Knoxville, Tenn. Memphis, Tenn. Nashville, Tenn. Stone's River, Murfreesboro, Tenn. Shiloh, Pittsburg Landing, Tenn. New Albany, Ind. Corinth, Miss. Brownsville, Texas Jefferson Barracks, Mo. Jefferson City, Mo. Springfield, Mo. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Fort Scott, Kansas Fort Gibson, Indian Terr'y. Keokuk, Iowa